Random thoughts and technical bits

VMUG Virtual Event

I am a huge fan of the VMUG organization. I attend two different VMUG’s in central ohio. From time to time I have been known to speak at the events. In fact I will be speaking on Feb. 25th on design at the Central Ohio VMUG. So last week I attended the VMUG virtual day long event. VMware has been playing around with this type of event for about six months now. The concept is simple avoid the traveling show and create a virtual event. There are live streams with Q and A sessions and of course vendor booths.

This type of medium is getting more popular by all companies to reduce expense. Of course the key is they need to bring value to the table. Traditionally they have these type of shows attract people for these reasons:

SWAG (Stuff we all get)

Get out of the office

Chance to talk to a lot of vendors in one place

Chance to learn about companies product (marketing)

The virtual event does offer prizes but not a lot of swag beyond white papers. Personally, I enjoy going to the events because I can interact with other people. I find the lunches at these events to be the most useful. In that respect the virtual event is really missing out. I can talk to vendors via chat or VMware employees but my ability to talk to other customers is limited. I have always felt that VMUG is really about other customers. I hope they find a way to create community at these events as well. Here is the good news even if you could not attend you can get all the presentations streaming until Feb. 24th right here.

I did enjoy seeing more vSAN best practices. I am really looking forward to seeing more vSAN deployments.

About Author

Joseph Griffiths is a virtualization focused solutions architect who works with complex cloud based solutions. He currently holds many IT certifications including VMware VCDX-DCV and VCDX-CMA #143. This blog represents his random technical notes and thoughts. The thoughts expressed here do not reflect Joseph’s current employer in anyway. You can follow Joseph on Twitter @Gortees